Cooling module for led lamp

ABSTRACT

A cooling module for an LED lamp includes a thermostatic plate, a hollow column, and a plurality of cooling fins. The thermostatic plate has an evaporating segment and a pair of condensing segments extending from the evaporating segment. The outer surface of the hollow column has a pair of grooves corresponding to each other. The condensing segments of the thermostatic plate are buried in the grooves. The cooling fins surround and thermally contact the outer rim of the hollow column and the condensing segments.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to cooling modules. More particularly, thepresent invention relates to cooling modules for light emitting diode(“LED”) lamps.

2. Related Art

Light emitting diodes (“LEDs”) have the characteristics of low powerconsumption, high energy efficiency, long lifetime, small volume, andfast response. Because of these characteristics, LEDs have beenreplacing traditional light bulbs and been used in different lightinginstruments (i.e. lamps). However, temperature variation may affect anLED's life and performance. Therefore, an LED's cooling module must haveoptimal arrangement.

A conventional LED lamp cooling module has a hollow column and athermostatic plate. The hollow column has a ring-shaped inner wall. Thethermostatic plate has an evaporating segment and two condensingsegments corresponding to each other. The two condensing segments lieinside and across the hollow column and contact with the hollow column'sinner wall. The evaporating segment is exposed outside the hollow columnso as to be connected and fixed to the LED lamp. These constitute thebasis structure of the conventional cooling module.

Although the aforementioned structure is good for cooling, its coolingefficiency is still not enough for high power/watts LEDs. Therefore, itis still desirable to have an LED lamp cooling module with bettercooling efficiency.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present invention provides a cooling module for an LED lamp. Thedirect thermal contact between its cooling fins and the hollow columnand the thermostatic plate can dissipate the heat generated by the LEDlamp more efficiently.

To achieve this and other objectives, the LED lamp cooling moduleincludes a thermostatic plate, a hollow column, and a plurality ofcooling fins. The thermostatic plate has an evaporating segment and apair of condensing segments extending from the evaporating segment. Theouter surface of the hollow column has a pair of grooves correspondingto each other. The condensing segments of the thermostatic plate areburied in the grooves. The cooling fins surround and thermally contactthe outer rim of the hollow column and the condensing segments.

The present invention allows each of the cooling fins to be manufacturedthrough thin-sheet stamping and then be connected to the thermostaticplate and the hollow column. This not only greatly minimizes the overallweight of the cooling module, but also increases the cooling area perunit volume. Furthermore, the heat conducting base has a containertrough to connect to and fix the thermostatic plate. The through openingfurther allows the thermostatic plate to directly conduct heat away fromthe LED heat source. In addition, each of the cooling fins has somethrough troughs. These through troughs will facilitate lateral airconvection between each two adjacent air passages.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features and advantages of the various embodimentsdisclosed herein will be better understood with respect to the followingdescription and drawings, in which like numbers refer to like partsthroughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional exploded diagram of a cooling moduleaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an outward appearance of the cooling module with itscomponents combined together;

FIG. 3 is a cross-section view along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross-section view along the line 4-4 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-section view showing how the cooling module iscombined with an LED lamp.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 to FIG. 4 shows a cooling module for an LED lamp according to anembodiment of the present invention. The cooling module of theembodiment primarily includes a heat conducting base 10, a thermostaticplate 20, a hollow column 30, and a plurality of cooling fins 40.

The heat conducting base 10 is made of metal such as aluminum, copper,or their alloy. Generally, the shape of the heat conducting base 10 islike a circular plate. A middle part of the plate has a rectangularcontainer trough 11. A through opening 111 is formed on the bottom ofthe container trough 11. A step 12 is set on each of the two lateralsides of the container trough 11.

The thermostatic plate 20 of this embodiment is a vapor chamber, thevacuum chamber of which contains components such as capillary structureand working fluid. The gas-liquid phase change of the working fluid canachieve heat conduction. Furthermore, the capillary structure can helpthe working fluid to flow-back and hence create a continuouscirculation. The thermostatic plate 20 roughly has a U-shape. It has alatitudinal evaporating segment 21 and a pair of longitudinal condensingsegments 22 and 23, which extend from the evaporating segment 21. Theevaporating segment 21 is placed inside the container trough 11 and hasthermal contact with the heat conducting base 10. In a positioncorresponding to the through opening 111, the evaporating segment 21 hasan exposed flat surface 211 that is at the same level with the bottomsurface of the heat conducting base 10. As shown in FIG. 4, thelatitudinal cross-section of each of the condensing segments 22 and 23forms an arc-shape. The two cross-sections have an inner camberedsurface 221, an inner cambered surface 231, an outer cambered surface222, and an outer cambered surface 232.

The hollow column 30 is made of material with good heat conductivity,such as aluminum or copper. A pair of grooves 31 and 32, whichcorresponds to each other, are formed on the outer surface of the hollowcolumn 30. In this embodiment, the condensing segments 22 and 23 of thethermostatic plate 20 are buried in the grooves 31 and 32, respectively.Furthermore, the inner cambered surfaces 221 and 231 adhere to thehollow column 30 closely so as to conduct heat efficiently. The outercambered surfaces 222 and 232 of the condensing segments 22 and 23 areexposed, and form a circular rim together with the outer surface of thehollow column 30 (as shown in FIG. 4).

Each of the cooling fins 40 may be formed through thin-sheet stamping,and be made of metal such as aluminum, copper, or their alloy. Each ofthe cooling fins 40 may have an L-shape (as shown in FIG. 4). Theshorter sides of the L-shapes are thermal contacts; they form a circlealong the hollow column 30 and the outer cambered surfaces 222 and 232of the condensing segments 22 and 23. The longer sides of the L-shapesare arranged as if they are emanated out from the hollow column 30 andthe condensing segments 22 and 23. On the free end of each of thecooling fins 40 there are multiple through troughs 41. These throughtroughs 41 will facilitate lateral air convection between each twoadjacent air passages.

In addition, the embodiment further includes a cooling body 50. Thecooling body 50 may be made of metal such as aluminum, copper, or theiralloy. It has a bottom plate 51 and a plurality of cooling columns 52extending out from the bottom plate 51. Furthermore, a pair ofprotruding plates 53 extend out from the bottom plate 51 (but are notbelow the cooling columns 52). With the bottom plate 51, the coolingbody 50 presses on the evaporating segment 21 of the thermostatic plate20, so that the protruding plates 53 will be embedded in and fixed tothe steps 12.

FIG. 5 show how the cooling module is used with an LED lamp 8. This LEDlamp 8 has a circuit board 81 and a plurality of LEDs 82 disposed on thecircuit board 81. To combine the cooling module with the LED lamp 8, thecircuit board 81 will be attached to the bottom surface of the heatconducting base 10, so that the back of the circuit board 81 and/or thebacks of the LEDs 82 are facing the flat surface 211. This arrangementwill allow the heat generated by the LEDs 82 to flow through the flatsurface 211 to the thermostatic plate 20. The gas-liquid heat conductingmechanism of the thermostatic plate 20 will then conduct the heat to thecondensing segments 22 and 23. A part of the heat will flow to thehollow column 30 and then dissipate. Another part of the heat will bedirectly conducted to the cooling fins 40 for dissipation. As a result,the heat generated by the LEDs 82 of the LED lamp 8 will be dissipatedefficiently.

The above description is given by way of example, and not limitation.Given the above disclosure, one skilled in the art could devisevariations that are within the scope and spirit of the inventiondisclosed herein, including configurations ways of the recessed portionsand materials and/or designs of the attaching structures. Further, thevarious features of the embodiments disclosed herein can be used alone,or in varying combinations with each other and are not intended to belimited to the specific combination described herein. Thus, the scope ofthe claims is not to be limited by the illustrated embodiments.

1. A cooling module for an LED lamp, comprising: a thermostatic plate,comprising an evaporating segment and a pair of condensing segmentsextending from the evaporating segment; a hollow column, the outersurface of which having a pair of grooves corresponding to each other,the pair of condensing segments of the thermostatic plate being buriedin the pair of grooves; and a plurality of cooling fin, surrounding andthermally contacting the outer rim of the hollow column and the pair ofcondensing segments.
 2. The cooling module of claim 1, furthercomprising a heat conducting base, the evaporating segment of thethermostatic plate thermally contacting the heat conducting base.
 3. Thecooling module of claim 2, wherein the thermostatic plate has a U-shape,the evaporating segment is formed on a latitudinal part of thethermostatic plate, and the pair of condensing segments are formed on alongitudinal part of the thermostatic plate.
 4. The cooling module ofclaim 3, wherein the latitudinal cross-section of each of the condensingsegments has an arc-shape with an inner cambered surface and an outercambered surface, the inner cambered surfaces are attached to the hollowcolumn, the outer cambered surfaces are attached to the cooling fins. 5.The cooling module of claim 4, wherein together the outer camberedsurfaces and the outer surface of the hollow column form a circular rim.6. The cooling module of claim 2, wherein the heat conducting base has acontainer trough, a through opening is formed in the bottom of thecontainer trough, the evaporating segment is placed inside the containertrough, and on the position corresponding to the through opening theevaporating segment has a flat surface that is exposed and at the samelevel with the bottom surface of the heat conducting base.
 7. Thecooling module of claim 6, further comprising a cooling body, thecooling body having thermal contact with the evaporating segment.
 8. Thecooling module of claim 7, wherein the cooling body further has a bottomplate attached to the evaporating segment and a plurality of coolingcolumns extending from the bottom plate.
 9. The cooling module of claim8, wherein the bottom plate has a pair of protruding plates, two sidesof the container trough of the heat conducting base have two stepscorresponding to the protruding plates, and the protruding plates areembedded in the steps.
 10. The cooling module of claim 1, wherein eachof the cooling fins has an L-shape, the shorter sides of the L-shapesare attached to the hollow column or the pair of the condensingsegments, and the longer sides of the L-shapes are arranged as if theyare emanated from the outer rim of the hollow column and the pair ofcondensing segments.
 11. The cooling module of claim 10, wherein thefree ends of the cooling fins have a plurality of through troughs.